Yesterday was one of the most active Red Sox Hot Stove days in a long time: Let me ‘splain. No, take too long. Let me sum up…

We lose our catcher to the Marlins (after it took me a good 6 months to spell his name without having to copy and paste it all the time). But we picked up a new one–he just happens to be one of the biggest malcontents in baseball, and yet another center fielder represented by SATAN signs with the Skanks…

Yeah, that’s about right…

Honestly, ya know what is TRULY the worst thing about Jake going to the Skanks? The fact that the “Johnny Damon did the same thing” NONSENSE has already started, and there will be ENDLESS analysis as to why this is the completely the same/totally different than when he went to the Skanks, and we’ll have to listen to him TALK again–Holy Hell, deliver me from Mr. Disinengenous…

And then, let’s not forget the “Will the Sox fan boo Jacoby when he comes back to Fenway” endless loop, not to be confused with the “Sox fans will be ‘classy’ and applaud him for his contributions to the Sox”.

Holy Hell…this crap makes my teeth ache…

I think the one saving grace about the fact that its Jake is that he is NOT a spotlight hogger like Damon was–he’ll probably say something once, and that will be the end of it..THANKFULLY…

And yes, I appreciate all the things that Jacoby Ellsbury did for the Sox, and No, it’s not a big surprise that he took the money and ran (Boras IS his agent after all)…and yes, I think the Skanks paid FAR TOO MUCH (7-years, $153 million) for him, because that is what they do. And No, I don’t think he is miraculously going to be injury free . He has played 715 games in his career, over 7 years, or an average of 102 games a year…Most notably 18 in 2010, and 74 in 2012

But….Gah! It still annoys me…

And speaking of annoying, yesterday was sure as hell a red-letter day for THAT.

OK. I am not completely broken up that Jarrod Saltalamacchia signed with the Fish for 3 years, $21 million dollars, but Holy Buckets, did Ben REALLY need to sign A.J. Pierzynski–A.J. PIERZYNSKI??? I know its a 1 year deal (and $8.25 million), and its to give the young ‘uns more time to get ready for the bigs, but he is a biggest jerk going. And the Sox already got rid of their baggage when they ditched Beckett and Gonzalez–do we really want to revisit that again??

His stats with the Rangers last year: 134 games, 119 of them he caught, .272 BA with 17 homers and 70 RBI’s–and an OBP of .297…

And I am STILL sad that Ryan Kalish was non-tendered on Monday. While it doesn’t mean he is absolutely definitely gone, it probably does. I have been making my “Ryan Kalish is going to get to the bigs and have a monster year for the Sox” prediction for like 17 years now. Guess he’ll have a monster year somewhere else. and then I’m gonna get REALLY cranky…

With the except in Andrew Bailey, everyone else unsigned was tendered a contract, and we have 5 potential arbitration guys: New Guy Burke Badenhop, Mike Carp,, Andrew Miller, Franklin Morales, and Junichi Tazawa…

Finally, there was one bit of good news yesterday: John Lackey won the Tony Conigliaro Award, presented by the Boston Baseball Writers, to a MLB player who has overcome adversity. It wil be presented by Conigliaro’s family at the 75th annual awards, at Boston’s Westin Copley Place at the end of January. R.A. Dickey was honored in 2012…

And Nomar is leaving ESPN to move closer to home, accepting a job as an announcer with the Dodgers Organization, where he played the last 3 years of his baseball career, with the exception of the last day, which he played with the Sox, so he retired a member of the Red Sox…go back and read that again if you need to, I can wait…

Coming up: Winter Meetings Start Next Week on Monday the 9th, and continue through Thursday the 12th, in Lake Buena Vista, FL. I reallyREALLY hope the Sox have some better signings–SOON…cause I am not digging this off-season…